CAISO connects innovative storage in wholesale market

The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) and Sumitomo Electric Industries have announced the second stage of a battery energy storage pilot in California.

The second stage of the pilot includes partnering with the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to connect a 2MW/8MWh stationary radox flow battery.

The pilot is the first to connect a battery storage system in the US wholesale energy market.

The aim of the pilot is to test the economic value of using battery storage for frequency regulation and energy trading within the CAISO market.

The system will be used to meet both short- and long-period fluctuation needs since radox batteries have no limitation in terms of the depth of charge and discharge, as well as the number of charge and discharge cycles.

The first phase of the pilot was implemented in partnership with utility SDG&E and included the installation of 2MW/8MWh battery at a substation within the energy provider’s grid network from March 2017.